The Wild's game against the Colorado Avalanche was much more than the headline game of Hockey Day Minnesota on Saturday, Jan. 19: It was the season opener for Minnesota after an absence that extended to 287 days because of the NHL lockout.

Players and coaches officially returned to work when training camp opened six days earlier, but the first game of the 2013 season represented a big day for little-known team personnel as well as for area bar and restaurant workers, vendors, ushers, concession workers, security guards and many others whose work was put on hold until the National Hockey League started to play games.

Opening day in St. Paul went like this:

5:58 a.m. -- Assistant equipment manager Rick Bronwell walks into the Xcel Energy Center, carrying a cup of coffee. Bronwell is a morning person, but he won't leave the X and head for home until shortly after midnight. "I just wanted to get in, get a workout in, shower, hot tub, get to work," he says. "And to deal with (Matt) Cullen's skates, too. I didn't want to work on them when they were soaking wet last night."

Bronwell's day began when he rose at 5:15, brushed his teeth, watched snippets of the news on TV with his wife, Heather, grabbed some coffee and headed to the workplace. He said he tries to "chill" for about two hours during the afternoons of home games, possibly nap for a few moments. But if anything needs his attention, he jumps in.

Like Bronwell, he likes to work out and settle in before players begin arriving.

Often, he might have a few pairs of skates to sharpen, but most of the pregame preparation is done the day before a game, he says. He will remain at the X until after midnight, as well.

"They're long days," he says, "but you're not working like a dog the whole day. And you love it; it's fun."

DaCosta says he's prepared for just about anything -- with the possible exception of an equipment fire like the one that occurred the day before a game in Ottawa on Dec. 18, 2009.

6:35 a.m. -- Coach Mike Yeo parks his vehicle below the X and enters through the staff entrance underneath the building. Yeo says that's the typical time he arrives, even for a game that is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

"We've got things to do," he says later in the morning. "We've got a game tonight, so we have to get ready for that."

8:20 a.m. -- Defenseman Tom Gilbert, dressed casually, ambles through the door of the Wild dressing room to prepare for the team's morning skate scheduled to begin at 10:15.

Gilbert has a slight groin injury and arrives a bit early for treatment. After the morning skate, he goes home for a nap, then returns to the arena before 5:30 p.m.

"It's just more of a routine," he explains. "Once you find one you like, you pretty much stick with it."

11:55 a.m. -- One at a time, Bronwell places players' Iron Range red game jerseys on hangars and then on a hook at each dressing room stall. Already, the skates have been wiped dry and sharpened and hung on metal pegs above each stall, on either side of the helmets.

The job became a tiny bit easier this season because the addition of a lounge in the west end of the second level reduced the number of seats from 18,064 this year.

Of course, shirts are also placed in spots where people with standing-room tickets will be, and the green seats of the arena are transformed to red.

The job is finished by 1:30.

4 p.m. -- Radio play-by-play announcer Bob Kurtz returns to the X.

Kurtz, who like other members of the media attends the team's morning skate, will not go on the air until 8 p.m., but he likes to settle in and prepare.

He developed his habit of arriving well in advance of the game when he was calling Boston Red Sox games and drove two hours from his New Hampshire home to arrive at Fenway Park by noon for a 7 o'clock start.

Sarah Solie of New Brighton enters the front door with friend Ashley Matthiesen of Zimmerman, Minn., and finds a seat at the bar. Her husband is ice fishing, so she invited Matthiesen to join her for the first use of the couples' half-season tickets this year.

"Finally," she says, then adds, "We're hitting all the places around here before the game."

4:35 p.m. -- Barry Fritz, the crew chief of off-ice officials, arrives at his perch, a booth in the Al Shaver press box.

Fritz and his 16-person crew keep track of all the game stats, including shots on goal, hits, ice time and more with a battery of computers.

5:05 p.m. -- Starting goaltender Niklas Backstrom, dressed sharply in a suit and tie, walks along the lower-level concourse of the X and steps into the Wild dressing room.

Backstrom has a very particular pregame regimen and he likes it to operate like clockwork. He typically is the first player to arrive on the day of a game.

His stroll through the bowels of the arena have been oft-chronicled. As his slow jog proceeds, he keeps his eyes down and ponders the coming game.

5:50 p.m. -- Alex Thompson, 12, of Robbinsdale, and his uncle Bruce Thompson, Osseo, are among the first fans into the lobby of the X for the 6:30 opening of the gates and are close to the front at one of the gates.

Alex is wearing a Niklas Backstrom jersey. They arrived early, he says, "because my uncle got a good parking place."

Bruce Thompson, who has had season tickets for every Wild season, was expecting a big turnout and says he wanted "to get a jump on the crowd." He did.

7:29 p.m. -- Thirty-five pucks are tossed on the ice and players from both teams take part in their pregame skate. The early arriving fans cheer.

7:46 p.m. -- The warm-up over, Brian Regan and Dave Hanson drive two of the iconic Zamboni machines onto the ice to turn the 200-foot by 85-foot surface into glistening smoothness.

8:05 p.m. -- Flag bearer Mackenzie Sinner of Blaine skates under a spotlight to center ice and plants the Wild banner on the faceoff dot.